New Rocket for Shuttle Passes Another Trial

AP

Published: October 10, 1987

BRIGHAM CITY, Utah, Oct. 9—
The third in a series of tests on a joint for the redesigned booster rocket for the space shuttle has been declared a success by officials of Morton Thiokol Inc., the maker of the rocket.

The two-minute test firing Thursday was to determine if a deliberate flaw in the joint connecting the rocket's nozzle to its body would permit hot gases to burn through a new seal.

There was no evidence of any leak, said Allan J. McDonald, director of the company's shuttle redesign team at the company's plant here.

The nozzle joint was already being redesigned when a flawed joint between two segments of the rocket leaked super-heated gases, setting off the explosion of the shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986, killing the seven-member crew.

Previous tests of the new nozzle seal were conducted in May and August.

In another development in the redesign of the rocket, officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the second full-scale horizontal test firing of the entire redesigned booster, originally set for November, would take place sometime in December because of some complications in the nozzle.

The officials said they did not expect the postponement to affect their goal of June 1988 for launching the first space shuttle since the Challenger disaster.